USA - German fibre network specialist BroaMan has appointed Clear-Com as its new distributor in the USA. BroaMan has rapidly found favour not only in the broadcast market, but also with production companies, sport facilities, professional AV integrators and many more applications with its bespoke solutions and range of off-the-shelf converters. As the provider of intercom systems, Clear-Com will now expand its infrastructure expertise to include video signal distribution and routing networks. The BroaMan portfolio includes the MUX-22 and Repeat8-NANO Series interfaces, palm-size 3G-SDI or AES10-MADI signal media converters, the larger capacity Repeat48 media converters and Route66 3G-SDI 40 x 40 non-blocking video matrix. BroaMan MD, Tine Helmle, comments: “Clear-Com is an excellent partner to be working with - extremely professional, knowledgeable and
Europe - Green Hippo has appointed Video Projektai as its exclusive Lithuanian distributor. With immediate effect, Video Projektai takes responsibility for distributing Green Hippo throughout the largest of the three Baltic nations. Video Projektai is based in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital city, meaning it is well placed to take advantage of businesses based in the former European Capital of Culture, as well as beyond and into the rest of the country. With over 10 years of providing solutions to Lithuania’s video creatives, Video Projektai has the necessary technical expertise, in addition to the required understanding of its home territory, to promote Green Hippo’s line of cutting-edge technology to the Lithuanian market. James Roth, head of sales and marketing at Green Hippo, says: “Lithuania offers solid potential for Green Hippo to further cement its f
The Netherlands - Elation is holding PRO Service Days on 10-11 July at its European headquarters in Kerkrade, the Netherlands. The training days will provide in-depth technical knowledge of the company’s most popular products, with a detailed look at technological construction while covering important service guidelines. A €30 hospitality fee will be required to cover food and drinks and registration. There is only room for 15 participants each day early registration is recommended. Deadline for registration is 6 July. Elation’s European headquarters is centrally located on the German / Belgian border and can be easily reached by road from the UK, Belgium, Germany and France. For details, questions and/or help with accommodations, please contact Elation Europe at info@elationlighting.eu. (Jim Evans)
UK - Theatres Trust has announced that booking is open for its 2018 conference in October. The 2018 conference, Adapt & Thrive - new money and new models for theatre buildings will be held on Tuesday, 16 October at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. The annual conference will feature broad-ranging debates, panel discussions with audience participation, case studies from architects, theatre operators and consultants, developers, local authorities and LEPs, and high profile speakers, including Michael Ellis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, and producer and theatre owner Cameron Mackintosh. Jon Morgan, director of Theatres Trust, comments: “If there is one thing the theatre industry is good at it is improvising - making the best of our resources and ensuring that at all costs the show must go on. We now need to p
Europe/Asia - Milos held its annual product academies at its bases in Roudnice nad Labem, the Czech Republic (13-14 April), and in Guangzhou, China (10-11 May). The two-day product academy has been designed to provide attendees with the knowledge and skills for working safer while carrying out rigging duties and constructing support structures. The Czech Republic event brought together local attendees, but also visitors from Slovakia, Germany, England, Scotland and Australia. The product academy in China drew attendees from China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, as well as from Australia, New Zealand and Kenya. Eric Porter, certified rigging consultant and internationally renowned rigging professional, gave rigging presentations and provided rigging consultations. Norbert Tripp, Area Four Industries technical director and structural engineer, held presenta
USA - RC4 Wireless has patented a method of pixel control - keyframing and RC4 Custom Pixel Profiles (CPP) - which reduces the number of DMX control channels required for generation of artistic pixel patterns displayed on a large number of pixel LEDs. The patent is US9924584B2 issued by the US Patent Office. “I’m particularly proud of this IP because of the control it provides to lighting designers and programmers,” explains James David Smith, chief product designer at RC4 Wireless. This is the firm’s second patent. Keyframing is an integral part of three RC4 Wireless pixel-driver products: the RC4Magic DMXpix Dual Pixel String Driver in both 2.4GHz and 900MHz and the LumenDimPIX for LumenRadio CRMX; the latter operates on the Lumen Radio wireless platform. “Unlike any other pixel control technology for reducing channel count, RC4’s technology combin
Switzerland - Verity Studios AG, an indoor drone technology specialist, has announced that it has raised $18m in a Series A funding round. Fontinalis Partners, a venture capital firm focused on next-generation mobility technologies, led the round. Other investors include Airbus Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Kitty Hawk. Verity plans to use this funding to expand its live events business, with a heavy focus on US growth, as well as to expand into other commercial verticals. “Verity has assembled an exceptional team, with credibility, valuable IP, and extensive technical know-how, all while building a fast-growing business in the live events market,” says Chris Cheever, co-founder and partner at Fontinalis. “Our firm was founded to invest in and help scale the world’s best mobility technologies, and what Verity has developed has broad applicability beyond entertai
USA - The organisers of the ESTA Plugfest have announced that RDMnet prototypes constructed to the most current version of draft standard E1.33, Transport of ANSI E1.20 (RDM) in an E1.31 environment, will be available for participants in Plugfest 2018. Wayne Howell of Artistic Licence and Sam Kearney of Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) are both providing RDMnet prototypes for attendee use and testing during the July Plugfest. Both Wayne and Sam noted that this is an excellent opportunity for early adopters to test manufacturer interoperability ahead of the publication of the final RDMnet standard. The Artistic Licence prototype will provide a version of their new dataLynx II gateway which has per port selection of sACN, RDMnet, Art-Net and RDM over Art-Net. The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, where manufacturers and developers test their lighting products for n
India - Atlona is amplifying its global On-Tour Roadshow Series with focused two-day events that focus on live hands-on demonstrations for dealers, consultants and end users. The first of these enhanced Zero to 60 Hz events recently wrapped in Jaipur, India, with 35 attendees enjoying detailed demos and intimate Q&A’s across dedicated time slots. Co-sponsored with Telso Networks at their office in the G-3 Regal Residency in Jaipur, the idea was born out of partner requests for technical workshops that go deeper into product use and system architecture than larger Atlona Academy training and education events. “As our partners and end customers move away from circuit-based systems and to the network, there is a greater desire and urgency to put their hands on this latest generation of products in advance of purchase of installation,” says Sanket Sawant,
Immersive Incentive - Performing arts organisations have been invited to bid for a £4m fund to create “game-changing” new experiences using immersive technologies. Public body Innovate UK is awarding a total of £16m in government funding as part of its Audiences of the Future programme. This will be split between four projects, each in a different industry which has been identified as having “maximum opportunity” for innovation. The four chosen industries are performance, moving image, sport entertainment and visitor experience. The programme aims to ensure the UK becomes a world leader in immersive technologies such as virtual reality, which is when an entire image or environment is created digitally, and augmented reality, where a computer-generated image is superimposed on to a user’s real view of the world. At a press briefing for the progr
UK - RCF hosted “two very successful” open days at Guildford’s G Live on 4-5 June. RCF partner Yes Production rigged a number of the Italian company’s popular products, ranging from line arrays and subs, point source solutions, portable speakers and mixing desks. Dean Davoile, RCF UK sales manager, comments: “We had a very successful two days. The venue was perfect and the ability to demonstrate a couple of flown large line arrays as well as multiple smaller point source system worked really well.” With the line arrays in mind, Davoile was aware that this was the first opportunity for those in the southern half of the country to hear the new HDL6-A and HDL30-A D-Line series speakers in a real-world situation. The systems were flown, with an array of SUB 9006-AS subwoofers along the front of the stage. Yes director Tom Chennells had earlier sele
UK - The winners of the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Theatre Awards 2018 have been announced. The awards ceremony took place on 6 June (Wednesday) at Alexandra Palace, London. The five awards for sound, lighting, engineering, widget and stand were complemented by a special award to mark the retirement of Roger Fox, the theatre show's director, acknowledging his 40 years work on building and developing the event since 1978.
The winners, who were picked by an experienced jury of working practitioners and industry peers, are listed below, along with the jury's comments:
ABTT Sound Product of the Year EM Acoustics for EMS-41 "This speaker features a compact design with a 4” driver and coaxial compression driver, producing similar output to the larger EMS-51, but at half the size,
UK - HSL, technical partner for Hope Mill Theatre, has updated the lighting rig of the Manchester production space with a number of profile, Fresnel and flood fixtures. Hope Mill Theatre, an alternative arts production space based at a former Victorian cotton mill in Ancoats, partnered with HSL two years ago. HSL undertook a structural survey followed by the design and installation of a trussing mother grid in the roof. While an assortment of lighting kit has been supplied over the last two years, this this has now been reviewed and updated to include a standard rig of ETC Source Four profiles, 1K Fresnels, and Acclaim Fresnels together with a variety of floods. Moving lights and other specials will be supplied as required by the individual productions. The original mothergrid has also just been extended with some new sections, giving more capacity for the quick
UK - Flightcase Warehouse has acquired Production Park-based heavy-duty case company Box Clever Cases, effective 4 June. The deal reflects an “ambitious growth strategy”, which has seen the Tamworth flight case manufacturer invest in “product, people and process”. Flightcase Warehouse is also launching an enhanced protective case service for Production Park businesses, including an on-demand delivery service, and is transferring all manufacturing to Tamworth. Sam Austin, managing director of Flightcase Warehouse, comments: “The Flightcase Warehouse acquisition of Box Clever Cases complements our overall offering whilst strengthening our hand in the production and live events marketplaces through maximising the unique and exciting opportunities Production Park affords us. We’re an ambitious company continually leading the way in both exclusive services and p
UK - Rental and production specialist Adlib’s lighting department has invested in eight new Zero 88 FLX S24 consoles. Simon Pettitt, lighting technical manager at the busy Liverpool headquartered company, and his team made the decision after becoming aware of the console and realising its massive potential as a cost-effective control package for small-to-medium shows, events and installations. Typically, Adlib envisions using these consoles - offering optimised control for up to 48 x LED sources, moving lights and conventionals - on a wide range of smaller corporate events, smaller / alternative festival stages, house of worship events and dry hires to schools and colleges. Simon commented that FLX S24 uses a “familiar workflow” for programming fixtures in a small package at an “excellent price point”, so they can use them on events utilising moving li
UK - Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is the top drama school for student mobility in the world, according to U-Multirank research. The College is also one of only two creative arts specialist higher education institutions in the top 25 globally-ranked universities for student mobility, the other one being the Glasgow School of Art. U-Multirank, a European Union-funded world university ranking that classifies 1,614 universities across various performance indicators, released the top 25 performers in nine of its indicators this week. The ranking takes into account having an international student body and offering students the opportunity to study part of their degree abroad as an indication of the international
Europe - The MTN Shop, an e-commerce platform offering entertainment, manufacturing and recreational products from industry-leading brands, has updated its websites (shopmtn.eu / shopmtn.com). Visitors will now benefit from seamless navigation across multiple industries, with over 30 brands available from one place. The shop offers more than 10,000 products across three categories - entertainment, industrial and rope access. One major change to the MTN offering is the addition of film industry rigging gear to service the full range of entertainment rigging professionals. Apart from enhanced aesthetics and a more advanced navigation, the websites benefit from optimised filtering and search, a live chat function, and secure online payment options. ShopMTN.eu is fully compliant with EU GDPR data protection regulations. (Jim Evans)
USA - At InfoComm 2018, Shure announced that it will offer an Integrated Systems Certification programme through the Shure Audio Institute (SAI). The programme will feature extensive integrated systems training courses for channel partners, AV professionals, systems integrators, and audio engineers. The SAI was established in 2015 to provide the dedicated training needed to support the Company’s growing product portfolio and serve customers as an industry-leading source for audio and AV professionals. Shure’s Integrated Systems Certification programme consists of two levels: Level 1 focuses on sales, with courses including Audio Basics for Meetings and Conferences, Wireless Basics, Integrated Systems Portfolio Overview, and Best Practices for Interacting with IT Professionals. Level 2 covers the technical side of product training and understanding. Cl
South Africa - Portuguese audio manufacturer NEXT-proaudio has appointed Sound Harmonics as its exclusive distributor for South Africa. The South African company has already started marketing NEXT-proaudio products. Sergio Pinto, NEXT-proaudio sales manager, comments: “We are pleased to welcome Sound Harmonics on board. They are a high-profile supplier that offers high quality solutions to the market with an unparalleled support in the professional segment. “We see great potential in South Africa’s market. This is a truly exciting progression that will ensure professional support to NEXT-proaudio customers in this market.” Joseph Mandy, Sound Harmonics director, adds: “We are very excited to be partnering with such a passionate group of people at NEXT-proaudio, and even more excited to bring this robust and exceptionally sounding brand to South
UK - UK console manufacturer Solid State Logic (SSL) has appointed SSE Audio Group (incorporating pro audio dealer Wigwam Sales) and Luton-based 2B Heard as dealers for its Live range of consoles. The appointments coincide with the launch of SSL’s latest Live console - L100 - at InfoComm 2018 in Las Vegas. SSE sales director Alex Penn comments: “From the launch of the L500 in 2013, we knew it would only be a matter of time before the Live consoles started to appear on riders for our Hire department. “There was a lot of early adoption in the US, something we saw from our UAC partnership with Sound Image. We first used the desks over here in the UK with the Country to Country Festival in 2016 and we bought our first console, an L200, for Blink 182’s 2017 tour. We then added to this with a pair of L500s for the J Cole tour and they’ve since been out with
Sweden - Lumini is a lighting rental company in Billesholm just outside Helsingborg, that is owned and run by Peter Johansson and has recently invested in 28 x Robe LEDBeam 150 fixtures and also DL4S profiles. The LEDBeam 150s are the newest purchase, and will be used primarily for illuminating tables during conference and dinner events, especially when the venue has low headroom. The eight DL4S’s were an earlier investment for multiple reasons, with the near-silent operation being a big consideration, especially useful for some of the high end corporate work in which Peter is regularly engaged. Peter loves the LEDBeam 150s. “The zoom range and the excellent colour mixing are ideal for the style and format of many of the events that I light,” he stated, adding that the incredibly light weight of just 6Kg is perfect for rigging in all sorts of places when t
UK - Specialist LED lighting manufacturer GDS has announced the creation of a new service department. By offering bespoke service contracts to end-users of its installed products, GDS aims to ensure that systems run smoothly and reliably and that potential problems are pre-empted by its onsite engineering team. Service contracts will extend existing product warranties and are offered at affordable rates which guarantee onsite fixes, emergency cover and replacement parts. The support offered by the GDS service department also includes help and advice regarding all other existing systems and consultation in respect of upgrades or new LED installations. (Jim Evans)
UK - Audiologic has confirmed its appointment as the exclusive UK and Ireland distribution channel for QSC Systems from 1 June 2018. As a designated industry market partner, as well as distributing the QSC Systems portfolio, Audiologic will offer technical services such as system design and validation, commissioning support and warranty services. The Harlow based company will also offer QSC product training at its recently opened education facility - Learning Space. Andy Lewis, sales and marketing director at Audiologic comments, “We are proud to serve as the exclusive UK distribution channel for QSC Systems. QSC is undoubtedly one of the world’s leading AV&C manufacturers and at Audiologic we enjoy a strong reputation for delivering exceptional value through proven system design and advice. We strongly believe that this is a winning combination and look forwa
UK - The PLASA 2018 Members’ Day and AGM took place on Thursday 31 May at the Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park, London to reflect upon a year of specialist projects, industry collaboration and growth. Members and guests enjoyed a productive day with an insightful AGM, followed by a networking afternoon in the venue’s unique ‘physic’ garden. The lively guest speaker, Caroline Russell from The Ideas Centre Group, encouraged audience participation with her creative approach to problem-solving, then attendees were invited to stay for drinks into the evening. PLASA Treasurer Mark Surtees presented the 2017 accounts and announced that PLASA is in a place of financial stability, highlighting an increase in profits due to commercial growth within Events and Media. Newly elected Chair, Adam Blaxill, added later that all profits funnel back int
